The Invasion of Banba: An Irish Creation Myth

This is an Irish creation story and myth I originally wrote as a replacement for the invasion of Cessair, who the later 12th century Irish scribes wrote in as noah’s granddaughter, but in a retelling to the Hawk of Achill. In it, Cessair is replaced by Banba as Geoffrey Keating would have it(CÉITINN)(REES, 115), and she is who dies in the waters and becomes the first god in the land of Ireland. The flood in this myth is not the flood of the bible, and it has been replaced with a primordial flood of the well of potential, the well of Segais.

§1 Have I ever told you of the tale of Old Fintan Mac Bochra and the Hawk of Achill? Well, little known is part o’ the tale before Fintan's death, where he reveals the real first taking of Ireland, said Sean Ó Dea a Draoithe.

§2 My life before the black flood was ninety nine to the power of nine years of years; after the flood the gods gave me five thousand five hundred years.

§3 Over and above that, O Bird, (Good reason have I to be aged); I was like that for a thousand years: That is the cause of the increase in my age.

§4 O Hawk, out of cold Achill, blessing and success attend you! From the time you were hatched from the egg tell the number of thy years.

§5 Equal is my life to thine O Fintan, said the Hawk, son of mild Bochra: exactly equal the period the same full age after the Deluge.

§6 O Fintan, son of fair Bochra, since thou art a poet and a prophet, tell us now without delay the evils and wonders that befell you after the flood.

§7 Fintan began: When the world was young and still forming out of the mists between Fire and Water, before the first dew fell, and before the Sun’s rays first shone down through the heavens, a void sea lay across all things. Cast upon the waves of this sea was I forever until I fashioned a coracle out of falsehoods and truths. The truths I told revealed floating upon the waves Bith the Giant, and upon him, his daughter Banba and her 50 maidens, and Ladra the Cow whose tail was that of an ox and three times as long. 

§8 We navigated a course in my coracle, Wave-Sweeper. The truths and falsehoods I told had kindled a Fire within the Potentials, bringing forth consciousness and causing swells in the void sea to rise up and become the mists of creation springing forth from a fire upon a well causing the waters of life, the child of Fire and Water. The 3 had among us the 50 maidens accordingly:

§9 A just division we shared between us, myself and Bith and bold Ladra; for peace and for reason was it done, in the matter of the fifty magnificent maidens.

§10 To seventeen women I belonged, including Banba--Lot, Luam, Mall, Mar, Froechar, Femar, Faible, Foroll, Cipir, Torrian, Tamall, Tam, Abba, Alla, Baichne, Sille: that is the tale which we were there.

§11 To seventeen Bith belonged, with Bairrfhind--Sella, Della, Duib, Addeos, Fotra, Traige, Nera, Buana,Tamall, Tanna, Nathra, Leos, Fodarg, Rodarg, Dos, Clos: be it heard -those were our people further.

§12 To sixteen thereafter with Ladra:Alba, Bona, Albor, Ail, Gothiam, German, Aithne, Inde, Rodarg, Rinne, Inchor, Ain, Irrand, Espa, Sine, Samoll: that was our fair company.

§13 None of the seeds of Fire and Water came before the Void but those.

§14 When each one of us was hungry, I, Ard-brithem, would say a rosc over the waters and cast my net into the sea and a salmon would be caught for us to eat. On the eighty eighth day at sea, I left my share unattended and Ladra the Cow came to eat it, and thus she came to be known as Ladra the Thief. So I slaughtered her, gave a just portion back to the sea, and ate of her flesh to replace my sustenance of sea and the knowledge of the salmon. The portion of Ladra given to the sea became torn apart by the Salmon of Segais, and a part begat the Fomorian Giants, and a part begat their descendants the Immortal Gods, and a part became the Othercrowd.

§15 When Bith learned of this, he grew angry and attacked me, but I slew him and dismembered him. Upon seeing this, Banba and the 49 maidens threw themselves into the sea and drowned unapologetically without sorrow. A Middle Isle rose from the Sea where Banba fell and her spirit inhabits the land there still. I then divided Bith accordingly, from his Bones I made the cliffs, ridges, and mountains taking his phallus and I formed the Lia Fal, and made my crane bag from his scrotum.

§16 From Bith’s flesh I made Talamh, the Earth, and from his Hair I made Uaine, that is, the grasses, grains, and trees. I made the Undry to catch Bith’s blood, which overflowed into the seas, each drop causing all the species of beasts to burst forth, swim though the ocean, crawl upon the land, and take flight in the skies. From Bith’s breath, I made the 5, 8, and 12 Winds, dividing them accordingly. Prosperity in the East, Music in the South, Knowledge in the West, Battle in the North, and Kingship in the Center. From Bith’s tongue I made An Claíomh Solais, the Sword of Light.

§17 I, from his Mind, I made the Moon whose light grows and diminishes revealing and hiding the Truths and Falsehoods of all Mystery in the Well of Segais. From his face, I made Grian the Sun and from an eyelash, I crafted the Spear of Destiny. From Bith’s brain, I made the Clouds, and from his Crown, I made the Heavens. From the three knuckles of his fingers I made the classes of Druids, Warriors, and Makers, and of the knuckle of his thumb, I formed servant classes. From Bith’s freckles and his birthmarks of his dome, I made the stars shine and the Isles of this world and the Otherworlds, the Isles of Learning set apart from the Land upon the sea, and I placed the four treasures which I had forged there entrusted with four Salmon of the names Morfessa, Esras, Uiscias, and Semias.

§18 The Void Sea had been filled, yet, while Truth and Falsehood still burn as white hot waters which flow forth from Segais, and whose source lay under the land, weather from another realm from which all entropic change flows, the nature of this well guarded its source from collapse, that was until the first leftward moving woman, Boann challenged it, for the Salmon in Connla's well protected it well with a deluge that became the Boyne. Yet it was only known by few, the nature of the well or the salmon within.

§19 I then prophesied and transformed into a salmon myself to learn the ways of Segais and the sea.--

Ireland--whatever is asked of me I know pleasantly,
Every taking that will take her from the beginning of the tuneful world to its end.

Ireland--whatever is asked of me I know pleasantly,

Every taking that will take her from the beginning of the tuneful world to its end.

Banba Cessair came from the East, the woman was daughter of Bith with Ernmas;

with her fifty maidens, with her three men.

The Void Sea overtook Bith in his Mountain, it is no secret;

Ladra in Ard Ladrand, Banba in her Nook.

But as for me, Wave-Sweeper carried me, the Son of the Sea, above the Void;

It snatched the Swells from me above heavy Tul Tuinde.

I will have a year under the Sea in strong Tul Tuinde;

I find knowledge for my sustenance, and an unbroken sleep where best.

I will be in Ireland here, my journey is everlasting,

till Partholon reached her, from the East, from the lands there.

I will be here in Ireland and Ireland a desert, till Nemed,

the son of Agnomain reach, brilliant his fashion.

The Fir Bolg and Fir Gailian come, not long after;

the Fir Domnann come, they’ll land on a headland in the west.

Thereafter the Tuath De come, in their masses of fog,

so that there will be sustenance for me though it will be a long lifetime.

The sons of Mil come from Spain, from the south,

so that there will be sustenance for me at their hands, though they will be strong in battle.

An immortal life falls to my lot, I shall not conceal it;

till the Faith overtake Erin of El, King of Heaven of clouds.

I am Manannan mac Lir, I shall not conceal it;

after the Void here I am a noble great sage.

§20 In that year which I spent under the sea before the coming of Partholon, I sustained himself by swimming through the waterways reaching the Well of Segais and eating the red hazelnuts which fall into it. And that was my time after the Deluge.

§21 And I will not die now, I will go to my rightfully honored place in Tul Tuinde. I will go there and be the custodian of Mag Mell as I have been before.

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